Free Republic

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A lawsuit that has flown under the radar for years shows how the Federal Aviation Administration undermined a skills-based test to help select air traffic controllers in an effort to promote workforce diversity. The Federal Aviation Administration under the Biden administration has pledged to continue diversifying its workforce under its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility goals. At the same time, a lawsuit that has long flown under the radar provides a glimpse into just how far the agency is willing to go to achieve those goals, even at the expense of skills-based tests for air traffic controllers. In December 2013,...

CNBC anchor Rick Santelli gushed over a January jobs report that he described as a “WHOPPER” that blew away expectations and featured a “HUGE jump” in average hourly wages. On Friday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a January jobs report that saw 353,000 jobs added, well above expectations: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 353,000 in January, and the unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, retail trade, and social assistance. Employment declined in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas...

BEDFORD - About 350 iRobot employees are going to lose their jobs after the Bedford-based company announced a 31% cut to its workforce. iRobot was set to merge with Amazon, but the technology giant said it was calling off the deal as a result of increased merger scrutiny in the United States and European Union. Boston College professor and economist Peter Ireland told WBZ-TV's Paula Ebben that it's a frustrating turn of events for workers at the business that invented the hugely popular Roomba robot vacuum. "When you hear news like this about a company, particularly a Massachusetts company, immediately...

Following a recent announcement that Amazon and iRobot have terminated their $1.4 billion merger agreement, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Associate Director for Merger Analysis Nathan Soderstrom released a statement expressing the Biden regulators’ pleasure at the dissolution. “We are pleased that Amazon and iRobot have abandoned their proposed transaction…The Commission’s investigation revealed significant concerns about the transaction’s potential competitive effects,” Soderstrom said in the statement. U.S. federal lawmakers, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, previously called on the FTC to block the merger in a joint letter. “iRobot is a powerful market incumbent, and Amazon, given its vast resources, history...

It only took roughly 20 minutes for a tampon dispenser in the boy’s restroom at Brookfield High School in Connecticut to be torn down

The SEC’s rule… [i]f finalized… could be the most ambitious and expensive mandate in the history of corporate finance regulation. This 500-page rule serv[ing] as the centerpiece for the SEC’s agenda on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing… exceeds the agency’s statutory authority. It also undermines the agency’s existing disclosure-based framework.

Tweet: Here’s the interesting part about Rishi’s tyrannical new online bill… Yesterday, his government announced that offences under new online laws have kicked in so “criminals can face up to five years behind bars for their demeaning and dangerous actions.” Part of this new law outlines a new “fake news” offence – a false communications offence – that outlaws the intentional sending of false information that could cause “non-trivial psychological” or physical harm to users online.

[Catholic Caucus] BREAKING: Priests, scholars ask Church leaders to request the Pope withdraw Fiducia Supplicans'Never in the history of the Catholic Church has a document of the Roman Magisterium experienced such a strong rejection’ as Fiducia Supplicans.Today, the feast of Candlemas, some 90 clergymen, scholars, and authors are publishing a new statement that joins the chorus of those Catholic voices opposed to the papally approved Fiducia Supplicans, a document permitting blessings of homosexual couples and other couples in irregular unions. The signatories address the bishops and cardinals of the Catholic Church, asking them to forbid such blessings in their respective...

Former Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow conceded that his prediction of a looming recession was wrong and admitted that the U.S. economy is doing much better than expected under President Joe Biden. Talking on Fox News' America Reports on Thursday, Kudlow offered a "mea culpa." 00:14 Former Trump Advisor Praises Joe Biden's Economy: 'I Was Wrong' By Giulia Carbonaro US News Reporter FOLLOW 84 Former Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow conceded that his prediction of a looming recession was wrong and admitted that the U.S. economy is doing much better than expected under President Joe Biden. Talking on Fox News'...

The US economy added a stunning 353,000 jobs last month, far more than expectations for 176,500, pushing up all three major indexes Friday morning. The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%. While the numbers underscore the strength of the US economy, it remains to be seen if the data could push back the timeline for interest rate cuts, which markets were hoping would start in March. Fed Chair Jerome Powell poured cold water on that notion Wednesday, saying there would be no rate cut that month. The Fed is aiming to beat inflation by slowing the economy without triggering high job...

Faucets: Has anyone modified a modern faucet for higher flow? Cell Phone Battery: A possible fix for not taking a charge. I'll ask about the faucet first. Has anyone modified one of these new fangled / EPA limited flow rate kitchen faucet for higher flow rate? These damm things are just too slow, especially off a well system where you only have 40-45 psi water pressure to begin with, and that's after the pump just ran. At best you get close to 1/2 gallon per minute. Heck, us old types don't have a full minute to wait around while filling...

Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) said Thursday on CNN’s “Situation Room” that President Joe Biden “has done a great deal,” but other people take the credit. When asked about Biden’s low approval, Dingell said, “I’m going to start with why today was so important, because I think he has done a great deal and people don’t know it. I think a lot of other people take credit for road money, bridge money, getting lead out of pipe money that was done at the federal level, money comes into the state, and everybody else takes credit for it but Joe Biden’s leadership...

Gaslighting DefinedGaslighting is the psychological warfare conditioning of a victim to believe something that is not true. It leads the victim to a conclusion they think they arrived at on their own. It compels the victim to take, or not take, an action. It starts with a conceptual idea then it leads the person to physical evidence, fake or not, that causes them to believe and act on a false reality. Gaslighting takes time as memories become fuzzy and the victim believes the gaslighting. Gaslighting works on individuals and entire populations. False FlagA False Flag operation is one where someone...

Mexico’s president suggested Thursday that talks with the U.S. government on migration and drug trafficking could suffer after media reports of a U.S. investigation into alleged drug money donations for his 2006 campaign. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested U.S. officials should apologize for what he called baseless allegations, and said it would be hard to sit down and talk about some of the most pressing issues in bilateral relations until that happens. “I don't accept this, what I want is for the U.S. government to take a stand,” López Obrador said at his daily morning press briefing. “If they...

March 5 elections for the state’s House of Representatives will determine the fate of Governor Greg Abbott’s school-choice program—and deliver voters’ verdict on an impeachment trial. As a reliably Republican state, Texas sees its future determined in Republican primary elections, particularly in the primaries for the state House of Representatives. The makeup and leadership of the Texas House, with its reputation as the more challenging chamber in which to pass conservative legislation, can determine the success or failure of a conservative policy agenda in the Lone Star State. While this year’s primaries, to be held March 5, are no less...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that 135 people were sickened with an “unknown” illness while on board a cruise ship operated by Cunard Line. In an update issued on Jan. 31, the agency said that the predominant symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea, but it said the “causative agents” are “unknown.” Out of about 2,700 passengers and crew, 135 were sickened on Cunard Line’s Queen Victoria, which is on a planned voyage from Jan. 22 to Feb. 12. However, the cases that have been currently reported “do not represent the number of active (symptomatic) gastrointestinal cases at...

In early 2020 in the midst of the covid lockdowns, blue states run by leftist governors pursued mandates with extreme prejudice. In red states like Montana, after the first month or two most of us simply ignored the restrictions and went on with life as usual. It was clear that covid was not the threat federal authorities made it out to be. However, in states like Michigan the vice was squeezed tighter and tighter under the direction of shady leaders like Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer used covid as an opportunity to institute some bizarre limitations on the public, including a mandate...

Well, this was a bit unexpected, given what Trump supporters have been implying about what Trump’s Ukraine policy would be. Far from cutting off funds or ending the war (the latter of which Trump has indeed promised), Trump, at a rally, told the audience that the US has been bearing a disproportionate portion of the cost and he would pressure European governments to increase their own contributions to the same level as the United States. Given that this is Trump, I wouldn’t call this an iron-clad-take-it-to-the-bank promise to keep pouring billions of dollars into Ukraine’s war coffers, but it does...

Feb 1 (Reuters) - Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab is delaying the construction timeline for its $20 billion chipmaking project in Ohio amid market challenges and the slow rollout of U.S. grant money, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Its initial timeline had chip-making starting next year. Construction on the manufacturing facilities now is not expected to be finished until late 2026, the report said, citing people involved in the project.